204 THE RISE OF ITALIAN FASCISM
council has resigned) will never be won back by the reds ;
neither will the vile socialist-masonic-/>0/Wflr£ coalition
succeed in winning back Cremona. At Novara, too, we
are triumphant. One has only to read our adversaries'
newspapers to see that the greatest confusion reigns in the
enemy camp. One calls for help from the government,
another threatens a general strike, another encourages
individual crime, some recommend patience. . . . No
orders, no plan. . . . They continue to call us bandits,
scum, barbarians, slave-drivers, brigands, corrupt. A
lot we care. You are printing useless insults, gentlemen.
Our retort, political and syndical, is to break your bones :
surgery, ruthlessly applied.3
This sort of talk, making due allowance for the element of
blackmail it contained, gives a savage but veracious picture
of the situation. However, the Popolari were somewhat
perturbed by events in Cremona, and parliament with
them. On July 12 the prefectorial commissioner and the
police chief were discharged, because they had sided too
shamelessly with the fascists. The executive of the fascio
immediately replied by delegating its powers, as usual, to a
secret committee of action, which organized a big meeting
of protest the same evening. Here it was decided to shut
every office, shop,^and bank until the government withdrew
the measures it had taken. There was a big demonstration
before the army headquarters ; fascist squads began to
arrive from the surrounding country, and the town was
occupied. During the following afternoon, the Chamber of
Labour, the offices of the socialist paper, a communist press,
several co-operative societies, and the flat of a Popolare
deputy were ransacked and burnt. Later, they forced the
police cordon that guarded the prefecture and broke into it.
When the news reached the Chamber the government
was savagely attacked. Mussolini feared that his friends
might suffer, and ordered the immediate evacuation of
Cremona. But nothing could stop a further cabinet crisis.
The Popolari announced their willingness to e shoulder their
responsibility' and form a more energetic government,
This time Giolittfs friends did not respond, for Giolitti
preferred to leave Facta, his lieutenant, whom he believed